A great budget Macro Lens

Hi all

I have a budget of under $300, what do you guys think is a good macro lens for the XTi? I am open to Canon, Sigma and Tamron.

I have a 18-55mm kit lens and just placed an order (thanks to all of your input) for a canon 70-300mm IS lens.

Your input is much appreciated.

Canon 50mm f/1.8 and a set of kenko extension tubes can be had for about $220 and would be/is a good macro setup on a budget.

I have the 50mm f/2.5 Compact Macro from Canon.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/12145-USA/Canon_2537A003_50mm_f_2_5_Compact_Macro.html

I like it. It's not a "true" macro in the sense of a 1-to-1 image. But it's only $240. You can actually get a "Life size converter" to add on to it but it would cost another $240 ( kinda odd ).

I've never used extension tubes, but I really like snipe's idea of a 50mm f/1.8 with tubes. You'd have a nice low-light lens and have the ability to do macro.

pardon the naive questiion, but what do the exension tubes do?

The best budget macro lens in terms of optical quality is a an old manual focus Micro-Nikkor lens, which usually goes for under $100 on eBay. Manual focussing is very easy in macro, since it is very easy to see what is or is not in focus when there is so little depth of field.

It can be used with an adapter on EOS cameras, and automatic exposure works when your camera is set to aperture priority, but you have to stop the aperture down manually. I have written more about it here:

http://ca.geocities.com/spirope/EOSclassiclenses.htm

If you want autofocus and auto diaphragm, I would say that the Tamron 90mm is the best value (much more so than the Canon 50mm).

edlavallee said:

pardon the naive questiion, but what do the exension tubes do?

Click to expand...

extension tubes are hollow tubes that fit between the camera and lens. They come in various lengths, thereby separating the lens farther away from the camera. The net effect is that the minimum focussing distance of the lens shifts to a much nearby range, without affecting image quality (since they dont add any glass to the setup). The benefit you gain is that since you can focus on something very nearby, it gets magnified (basically macro). The drawback is that with tubes mounted, you can only focus on very nearby subjects (in fact too near, just a few cm away) and lose the ability to focus on real life distances or infinity. Also, as with every macro setup, the DOF is incredibly shallow

Due to these drawbacks, ext tubes are inconvinient as compared to a true macro lens, but still they are a good poor man's macro (see image samples below)

The length of tube decides how much magnification you gain (longer = more, nearer)

kenko sells a set of 3 tubes sufficient for all length combinations for about $80. ebay also has some very cheap tubes ($10-20) but these lack the electronic contacts to connect the lens to camera (kenko/canon tubes have lens mount contacts to pass on information), thereby disabling AF and aperture control. While AF is immaterial in macro photography, but without aperture control you will be stuck with widest aperture of lens which will make DOF very shallow for macro. I would typically shoot macro at f11-22

The 50mm f/1.8 lens mentioned in this thread makes a very good combination with ext tubes. Here is a thread I posted few weeks ago showing some pictures taken with this combination (and the 430EX flash)
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1031&message=23677148

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PicPocket
http://pictures.ashish-pragya.com/GalleryIndex.html

That's how I started. 50mm f/1.8, Kenko tubes, and a B+W +10 Close Up. Flash and off shoe cable is a big help (I use on board flash to trigger the Sigma flash wirelessly). Here is a sample:
http://www.photo96.com/yongbo/20050602_crw_6983_a.htm
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Yongbo
Photo Gallery: http://www.photo96.com/

Thanks guys. This Canon 50mm 1.8 looks like a great winner for me being on the budget along with Kenko extension tubes.

Am I better off using Kenko extension tubes versus something like Canon close up lens 250D or 500D?

Any thoughts? Thanks again in advance.

If you haunt eBay; you will occasionally find a used Tamron 90mm f/2.8 Macro (the lens previous to the present one that Tamron is distributing). Although this lens is not touted to be specifically designed for digital work (as is the 90mm f/2.8 Macro that Tamron is presently distributing) the image quality is outstanding and is right up there with my 24-70mm f/2.8L and 70-200mm f/4L IS lenses. You can usually find these lenses going for anywhere from $100-250. I got mine in mint condition for $100 plus a few bucks for shipping. It is in mint condition and provides outstanding imagery. The bokeh is top-notch and creamy. This bokeh and the f/2.8 aperture alongwith the 90mm focal length makes the Tamron a wonderful portrait lens as well as a great macro (focusing down to 1:1 without adapter) lens.

Although I have not personally used the Phoenix (AKA Cosina, Vivitar, Voigtlander, and very possibly Pentax) 100mm f/3.5 macro lens, I have read good reviews of its image quality. The build apparently leaves something to be desired but, the price, at somewhere around a hundred bucks - new, is very low.

http://www.nikonians.org/html/resources/non-nikon_articles/phoenix/100f35-1.html

http://www.phoenixcorp.com/Lenses/Auto_Focus_Lenses/AF_100mm_f_3_5_Macro/af_100mm_f_3_5_macro.html

You cannot effectively use Canon FD lenses with EOS cameras but, older Nikon, Pentax and possibly other brand manual focus macro lenses can be used with adapters and are usually dirt cheap. No problem not having AF, I usually use manual focus when shooting macros anyway. The adapters are generally cheap also.

I once had a Series One Vivitar f/2.5 (not the less expensive and less capable f/2.8 variety) Macro lens for my Pentax MX camera that had outstanding image quality. It used an adapter to get 1:1 imagery but was a great lens. This Series One Macro lens was produced for many different type of camera mounts and if you could find one that could adapt to an EOS mount camera, it would be an excellent and low cost option.

Another way to get really big (usually 1:1 or greater) imagery is to use a 50mm manual focus lens reversed on a 50mm Canon lens. The manual 50mm lens can be a canon, Nikon or just about any other brand. These lenses are often available for $10-15 and the reverse adapter ring can be had very inexpensively on eBay.

You just need to have the filter size of your lens and the filter size of the lens which you are going to reverse. Reverse rings are available in all sorts of combinations.

http://photography.search.ebay.com/reverse-ring_Lens-Accessories_W0QQcatrefZC6QQcoactionZcompareQQcoentrypageZsearchQQcopagenumZ1QQfgtpZQQfposZ97321QQfromZR2QQfsooZ1QQfsopZ1QQftrtZ1QQftrvZ1QQlopgZQQsabfmtsZ1QQsacatZ78998QQsadisZ200QQsaprchiZQQsaprcloZQQsargnZQ2d1QQsaslcZ2QQsbrftogZ1QQsofocusZbs

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Retired Navy Master Chief Photographer's Mate. I was a Combat Cameraman, Motion Picture Director, and a Naval Aircrewman. I also had experience in reconaissance and intelligence photography. I have had considerable commercial photo experience in weddings and advertising photography. I am fully retired now although I dabble occasionally in dog portraiture. I presently use Canon DSLR cameras.

I use the Sigma 50mm macro lens and I like it

http://www.sigmaphoto.com/lenses/lenses_all_details.asp?id=3252&navigator=5

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Regards,

I may be wrong, but I may be right.

Benjilafouine

You can adapt a Canon FD mount macro lens to a Canon EOS camera but, you will not be able to focus this at infinity (which of course ifs not needed in macro work).

Of course, you cannot shoot at infinity if you added extension tubes or a closeup lens to your present Canon lens either.

There are some CFD 90mm Series One Macros going very inexpensively on Ebay. The FD to EOS adapter is inexpensive also.
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Retired Navy Master Chief Photographer's Mate. I was a Combat Cameraman, Motion Picture Director, and a Naval Aircrewman. I also had experience in reconaissance and intelligence photography. I have had considerable commercial photo experience in weddings and advertising photography. I am fully retired now although I dabble occasionally in dog portraiture. I presently use Canon DSLR cameras.

Supplementary close up lenses like the 250D and 500D do offer some advantages over tubes, especially if used with a zoom lens. Extension tubes give an apparent light loss of two stops at 1:1 magnification, close up lenses don't. But as with tubes, you still lose the ability to focus at normal distances with close up lenses. The maximum focusing distance with the 500D is 50 cm, and with the 250D it is 25 cm.

The Sigma 50 mm f/2.8 macro lens reaches a full 1:1. It isn't much more than the Canon 50 mm f/1.8 and the Kenko tubes and it focus allthe way to infinity.. It is an excellent lens, but has the shorter working distance that all 50 mm solutions will have,

Brian A.

you can buy the tamron 90 for 300 bucks after rebate new from amazon
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/11731152@N00/

Looks like the Canon 50mm f/1.8 along with Kenko extension tubes is a winner given my budget in mind.

I read an article that you can use the extension tubes in ADDITION to the Canon close up lens (250D and 500D) to get even closer.

Thoughts?

Thanks again in advance.

alinutts said:

Looks like the Canon 50mm f/1.8 along with Kenko extension tubes is a
winner given my budget in mind.

I read an article that you can use the extension tubes in ADDITION to
the Canon close up lens (250D and 500D) to get even closer.

Click to expand...

Save your money for a flash and diffuser. At high magnifications there is virtually no dof, so you will be stopped down quite far and often need external light. With three extension tubes stacked on the 50 mm f/1.8, you will be closer than you want to be anyhow – the camera and lens will overshadow your subject in most cases. The light has to come in from somewhere. If you want increased magnification over what you get with the tubes, you may want to look at a combination of tubes and a tele-extender. Extenders increase magnification without decreasing focusing distance.

For really, really close up shots, you can reverse and 50 mm lens onto another lens. Reverse couplers are

For all sorts of different combinations of magnifiers, see Mark Plonsky's site:
http://www.mplonsky.com/photo/article.htm

Brian A.